Saturday, September 26, 2015

It''s a beautiful life

With the U.S. presidential campaign turning its gears despite the election being over a year away, Americans have heard some remarkably stupid comments from candidates vying for attention. Most of the headline grabbing statements invariably are anti-women, anti-immigrant, anti-sanity. Over in Europe, they are dealing with a refugee crisis as people flee the chaos and bloodshed in Syria, while Israel wants to build a wall to keep those seeking asylum from entering the country. Yet, leave it to the machinations of the universe to provide example of humanity to make those stories seem like mere fluff. In the span of a month, I saw three news articles so vile it made me shudder.

In August, a 22 year old woman believed her 16 year old sister was possessed by demons. The family was told by a local religious figure that pain would drive the evil spirit out, so the woman arranged to have her sister gang raped, which police then say was followed by an even more gruesome act. Police Commissioner Paul Almiron said the pastor told the family to cut the girl's eyes out as part of the exorcism, and the ghastly act was carried out by the elder sister with a sharp instrument.

A few weeks later, in Florida, a man was making love when his companion called out the name of her ex-husband. Enraged, the man raped the woman vaginally and anally with various objects, until he eventually shoved his arm inside her. Per the article, "He said that he then inserted both fists, before putting his arm in her up the elbow and ripping out intestinal matter. Lopez told authorities that he had a cigarette after disemboweling Nemeth, and after he finished it she had stopped breathing."

Finally, in case your stomach is not already churning, a minister in Alabama has been accused of grooming young girls for deviant sexual acts. How young, you might be wondering, as if there was an age that might somehow make the previous statement more palatable. Well, "Jane said she lost her virginity to her pastor on her father's grave when she was just 9 years old." Oh, yes, that's right, the girl was raped in a cemetery. She was told that if she said anything, the pastor would not place flowers on the grave and demons would instead come and get her while she slept.

Those three stories were published from August 21 through September 21. Who knows what happened in small towns and distant regions that never even made it into the light of day?